Monday, September 17, 2012

Don't tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass.

Anton Chekov

As a writer (and an artist) I have
always "seen" the images I write about in my head - very clearly.
Some writers have told me they don't see the things they are writing about in
their mind's eye as they write. When I worked with novice writers, I talked
about using their inner eye while writing, in order to describe in words any vibrant
visual images they wanted to create in their stories. Many had no idea what I meant.

I would try to explain with this
example. "When you go for a walk, look up a the sky and try to describe in
words in your head what you are seeing. Do the lines of Canada geese flying
over look like just a bunch of geese passing overhead? Or do they look like
they are playing "crack the whip" in the ice-blue sky"?

As a writer and artist I am always looking,
looking, looking. When I see something that pleases me, or catches my eyes, or
shocks me visually, I try to write it in my mind the way I see it. I probably
look a bit gormless at those times, but it works for me. I carry little notebooks
to jot down images as well.

I think it’s important that we, as
writers, use part of “writing time” to look, to examine, to study our worlds - to help train that
inner eye, so our writing will conjure
up clear images in our readers’ minds.

It seems to me there is a very strong
link between visual art and the art of writing. When Chekov wrote, "Don't
tell me the moon is shining: show me the glint of light on broken glass."
I believe he was telling writers to "see" -- to paint and sculpt and
create vivid images in their minds as they write, not to simply state the facts
by telling us what we must see. We have all heard the phrase “Show, not tell.” He said it the best.

I decided to see if I could express this connection I feel between
writing and “seeing” - by searching out artists and their paintings and pairing
them with writers' quotes. I hope this brings Chekov's image of “show not tell”
to life in an interesting way - using the expressions and descriptions and
visions of the moon and moonlight by writers and painters.

Tom Thomson "Moonlight and Birches"

Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by? Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry; Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky?

On the Night Train, Henry Lawson

"Moon" JMW Turner

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The highwayman came riding,

up to the old inn-door.

The Highwayman, Alfred Noyes

"Moonlight" Winslow Homer

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!Here we will sit and let the sounds of musicCreep in our ears: soft stillness and the nightBecome the touches of sweet harmony.

Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare

"The Starry Night", Vincent Van Gogh

Crazed through much child-bearing

The moon is staggering in the sky:

Moon-struck by the despairing

glances of her wandering eye

We grope, and grope in vain

For children born of her pain.

The Crazed Moon, William Butler Yeats

Dieppe Sketchbook

"Moonlight on the Sea"

JMW Turner

I sat by night beside a cold lake

And touched things smoother than moonlight on still water

But the moon in this cloud sea is not human

And there is no shore, no intimacy,

Only the start of space, the road to suns

Transcanada, F.R. Scott

"Dog with Ladder", Joan Miro

The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse

The howling dog by the door of the house

The bat that lies in bed a t noon,

All love to be out by the light of the moon.

The Moon, Robert Louis Stevenson

"Ladder to the Moon" Georgia O'Keefe (Inspired by Miro's painting)

That I could clamber to the frozen moon

And draw the ladder after me.

Arthur Schopenhauer, quoted from "Parerga and Paralipomena"

"Lovers in Moonlight" Marc Chagall

Two Lovers watched the new moon hold

The old moon in her tight embrace.

Said she: "There's mother, pale and old,

and drawing near her resting place."

Said he, "Be mine, and with me wed,"

Moon high she stared ... and shook her head.

Moon Song, Robert William Service

"The Wandering Moon" William Blake

The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.

A Memory, Frederic Lawrence Knowles

"Harvest Moon" Samuel Palmer

To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.The harvest moon has come,Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.

So people can't sleep,So they go out where elms and oak trees keepA kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.The harvest moon has come!"The Harvest Moon" Ted Hughes

January 1, 2018 Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, R...

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